This week, we’re feeling all the feels: inspired, worried, optimistic, tired. It’s all part of the pandemic, we suppose.
While we acknowledge the importance of staying informed, we know that the news can sometimes be difficult to read. That’s why we’re turning for some safety-adjacent reading to help renew your efforts to continue creating a safe workspace for your employees.
Although the days can sometimes be grinding, we know there’s nothing routine about making sure employees can go home to their families at the end of the workday.
The Woman Responsible for the Coronavirus Vaccines
We’ve seen this story circulating the past couple weeks—and for good reason. This seemingly unassuming profile in The New York Times beautifully tells the story of the researcher who has changed hundreds of millions of lives.
Words fail us to describe this story, so indulge us as we share the first two paragraphs instead:
“She grew up in Hungary, daughter of a butcher. She decided she wanted to be a scientist, although she had never met one. She moved to the United States in her 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, instead clinging to the fringes of academia.
“Now Katalin Kariko, 66, known to colleagues as Kati, has emerged as one of the heroes of Covid-19 vaccine development. Her work, with her close collaborator, Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, laid the foundation for the stunningly successful vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.”
We were so moved by Kariko’s persistence, commitment and confidence to pursue her groundbreaking research on messenger RNA (mRNA) despite a lack of support. If you aren’t sobbing by the end of the article, we recommend reading the comments. We don’t say this often about comments, but they restored our faith in humanity and the fact that one person can make a difference.
Read the story here.
An Inconvenient Heart Attack
A 45-year-old British man’s LinkedIn post about his near-death experience is going viral.
The bank contractor detailed the events leading up to and his initial reactions to having a heart attack. He writes that at the initial onset of symptoms, he didn’t see his life flashing before his eyes. Instead, he thought, among other choice words, “This isn’t convenient.”
Now in recovery, he’s made plans to change his life because life is too short.
We may not all know first-hand what a heart attack feels like, but we can all relate to prioritizing work, family and other responsibilities over ourselves and our own health. Hopefully, Jonathan Frostick’s wake-up call can serve as one for us, too. If COIVD-19 has taught us anything this past year, it’s that life is precious, and we have limited time to spend it with loved ones.
Read the full post here.
Employers are Getting Serious about Vacation Time
The Wall Street Journal reports about an unexpected problem that has arisen during the pandemic: Employees aren’t using their vacation time.
While it may seem trivial, that unused PTO time is adding up. And it’s likely resulting in a burned out workforce, which we all know is a recipe for a safety disaster.
Some larger companies are encouraging employees to step away from the office. Google, Third Factor, Citigroup, SAP and PricewaterhouseCoopers are incentivizing employees through a bonus vacation day for every submitted request, paying employees to take time off and additional company holidays. Earlier this month, LinkedIn essentially shut down offices for a week so employees would feel like they could take time off without fearing the mountain of work upon their return, or be less likely to check-in while on vacation.
You may not be able to or feel comfortable with the COVID-19 pandemic to sip pina coladas on the cabana, but you might be able to snag a stock tank pool for your backyard this summer. However you manage, we hope you find a way to squeeze in some much-needed R&R for yourself—and help your employees to do the same.
We’re thinking of printing this article out and sticking it to the bulletin board or sliding it under the boss’ door. Feel free to do the same.